12 Tower View, Chartham, Canterbury, Kent, CT4 7TQ
Clinical Hypnotherapy face to face sessions recommencing on 8th June
Making the decision to look for support is one of the first steps to taking back control
A Hypnotherapist is Different to a Hypnotist
Hypnotherapists are not hypnotists and do not work in the same way. They are clinically trained using therapeutic skills.
Did you know Sigmund Freud used hypnosis?
If you would like a more detailed explanation on how the hypnotic trance works, contact me and I will send you some information.
About Me
My Experience
My training and experience originates from a deep interest in clinical psychology where I obtained a Psychology (BSc). I then went on to study Criminology (MA). I am also interested in social interactions and how this impacts on peoples mental health and vise versa; how people psychologically respond to the situations they find themselves in.
After working closely with people for Victim Support, Youth and Adult Offending, and in special needs (including much childhood trauma), I found that this is where I could really support people. The difficulties I came across more often than not related to anxiety, depression, stress and trauma to which many physical symptoms can also occur. I wanted to pursue this avenue of psychological well-being, and decided I could do this by becoming a therapist.
I wanted to specialise in anxiety, depression, stress and trauma, and particularly childhood trauma. All of these issues have become and still are becoming much more common, and it is during this time I feel that there will be a number of people that will need support. I decided to train as a psychotherapist and incorporate hypnotherapy with talking therapy. I am now a qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist (qualifying in 2017) I am also in my final year of training as a Psychotherapist. I am currently working on a clinical placement to gain even more experience as in bereavement ( Cruse Bereavement Care ( https://www.cruse.org.uk/ ).
It is a privileged to work with people so closely and is something I never take lightly. Whether I see a client for weight loss, or trauma, a persons experience is their experience which can never be taken away from them, so if I am able to support you in your journey, then you can be sure of a very safe, non-judgmental and empathic companion.
Amanda
BSc; MA; Hyp Cert CS; Ad. Dip. Psych (trainee psychotherapist)
I am here to help you...
... on your journey to a more positive well-being. Come and try a taster session if you have never been into an hypnotic trance before.
(Please note that following a taster session, any hypnotherapy treatment requires a full assessment before hand as part of my ethical practice).
Come and relax...
Expect nothing less than pure relaxation in hypnosis with the knowledge that you are on a path to something better...
About My Practice and ethics
My Practice
I am pleased to be able to offer a very personalised hypnotherapy treatment service based in the Kent countryside, whereby every client is treated as a unique individual with their own specific requirements. Each session is uniquely tailored to suit those individual requirements following consultation and assessment. I will put together a treatment plan with you, the client, ensuring you are at the center of your therapy.
My Treatment Focus
My aim is to help you achieve the goals you want to achieve through positive suggestion and the process of hypnosis. I focus on helping you feel more positive and in control of your mind so that each time you leave my therapy room you feel that you are making positive progress. Feeling in control and being more positive after your treatment will help build your confidence, self-esteem and maintain motivation. It really is that simple.
My Client Promise
As your therapist I will accompany you through this journey of change, all at your own pace. It is my promise to you that I will provide a safe, secure, confidential and non-judgmental space where I will listen to your concerns and facilitate your progression, however long or short that may be.
Professional Memberships
There are three types of hypnotherapy session
Experience a Taster Session
Beginning Your Hypnotherapy Treatment
Book an Assessment for Treatment
If you have never experienced hypnotherapy before then a taster session could be the way forward for you.
A taster session gives you the chance to meet me, discuss your reason for considering hypnotherapy in brief, and experience a short session of hypnosis. I will explain how hypnotherapy can work for you and answer any questions you may have. A the end you can take the expedience away with you, and/or make further appointments where an assessment may be required to go into more depth before treatment, however this depends on the nature of the issue. I'm happy to discuss your requirements with you.
Book an Assessment for Treatment
Beginning Your Hypnotherapy Treatment
Book an Assessment for Treatment
Before you go ahead with any hypnotherapy treatment (excluding some taster sessions), I will see you for an assessment so that I can understand what you would like to achieve from your sessions. You may have a specific goal in mind such as reaching a specific weight, or stopping smoking for good, or you may not be sure where the treatments will take you, only that you would like to feel a more positive sense of well-being.
From the information you give me I will form a treatment plan to begin implementing in your first full session. Treatment plans can and do change as therapy progresses so I will make regular reviews with you in your sessions. Additionally, if you have any concerns or want to make changes please discuss this with me. A certain level of commitment is acknowledged in the assessment that you have come to begin making a change in your life, albeit large or small.
Beginning Your Hypnotherapy Treatment
Beginning Your Hypnotherapy Treatment
Beginning Your Hypnotherapy Treatment
Following your assessment, you are now ready to begin treatment. Treatments sessions are for one hour and include a discussion at the beginning and end to see how you are feeling. I will then take you into the hypnotic state so that the work can begin to make the changes you have come for.
Each session hypnosis session varies depending on your reason for coming to hypnotherapy, and depending on any new information you bring to the beginning of the session. The number of sessions required is also based on each persons circumstances. These sessions really are tailored to your individual needs and with my guidance, last as long as necessary for you to achieve your goal.
How does Hypnosis really work in practice?
How are Hypnotherapists able to change levels of consciousness?
When you are awake and conscious you are in a Beta state of consciousness for most of the time; your day time waking hours state - a good state for making decisions, for reasoning and being logical. The brainwaves in Beta do not always show a rhythmical wave of activity, but cycles are above 13 cycles per second, and often much higher. What a hypnotherapist needs to do to achieve the hypnotic state is is to help your brain to move into a lower frequency consequently slowing down the cycles per second, and to do this need to relax you.
I use progressive muscle relaxation to relax people. This involves focusing attention on different parts of the body to allow those parts to relax; a psychological process with a physiological effect. It is far easier than it sounds, and most people are very surprised at how easy it is to achieve. Often I work from head to toe, or vice versa, or use a persons chosen imagery in their mind (creative visualisation) to induce a more rested state. Once people begin to relax and their brain waves slow down, the 'door' between the conscious and the subconscious opens. This is the part that can be difficult to grasp if you have never studied hypnosis before, but it is a case of trusting the science and of course the therapist.
Once the 'door' is open to your subconscious it is much easier to access memories and create storage of new information (the suggestions the hypnotherapist will give you in hypnosis), thus making the changes you have come for. The therapist can tell you are in the hypnotic state by using their skills from training to observe body language, and/or using a pulse oximeter monitor on your finger tip that indicates heart rate levels. I personally observe at regular intervals as this then enables me to take an instant observational reading of susceptibility without taking time to look at a device, but a device can be useful for measuring levels of physiological activity. Surprisingly we often relax and go into hypnosis several times a day without realising it. For instance, if you find yourself watching a movie that evokes a lot of emotion and makes you upset for example, then you have tapped into your subconscious and bypassed the 'door'! We have the ability to go into hypnosis quite easily.
So, once relaxed, and the subconscious 'door' is open, the Alpha state of consciousness is reached. Alpha state is consistent with suggestibility, learning, creativity, imagination and meditation. It is easy to see how using imagination in hypnosis can be so helpful, and visually creating a scene in the mind can be one way of reinforcing the changes a person has come to make. I find this works very well indeed, often with people telling me afterwards that in their everyday life they are consciously aware that something has changed, but they are not sure how, or what they have done differently, because it is quite the norm for people to come back to full consciousness after hypnosis and not remember anything I have said to them. This is what many people find so fascinating about hypnotherapy. The changes are made on a subconscious level.
For those who want to know more...
Hunter (2010) describes the conscious and subconscious in their states: the conscious being in Beta (jogging pace) and the subconscious being in Alpha (walking pace), however when a state of meditation is achieved both the conscious and the subconscious slow down to Alpha creating a channel of communication between them. The brain is still able to produce Alpha waves when in a state of total consciousness (consciousness in Beta state), therefore the brain can also produce Alpha and Beta waves simultaneously.
